Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously divided knowledge into three categories:
- Known Knowns. Things that we know we know.
- Known Unknowns. We know there are some things we don’t know.
- Unknown Unknowns. Things we don’t even know that we don’t know.
The 2019 Seattle Study Club Symposium in Amelia Island, Florida, titled “Dentist as CEO II: Navigating the Great Business & Financial Maze,” will mount an all-out assault on points 2 and 3. You will leave the meeting a different person, and you will see dentistry differently. Come to Symposium to learn more about topics that you know you need to know more about. Come to Symposium especially to discover what you don’t know that you don’t know.
Be prepared for “aha” moments. At the first Dentist as CEO Symposium, attendees were in awe of the depth and breadth of information presented. Symposium 2019 takes the CEO concept for dentistry to another level. In typical Seattle Study Club fashion, this is not another practice management meeting—although very important aspects of running a practice will be covered.
This meeting transcends the mechanics of everyday practice management and provides compelling, eye-opening, immediately useful information concerning a fundamental issue: How can one achieve business/financial success in life? Topics include business planning, investing, and estate planning. Leadership, negotiation, and employee accountability are also on the agenda and have never been more important. You will be challenged to look at these subject areas through a business lens, and then watch as the perspective is reversed and you learn how business experts shed light on these issues in dental practices.
Come to Symposium especially to discover what you don’t know that you don’t know.
You will get lessons from those in the know about how to stay ahead of the overhead curve and how to value your dental practice. You will enjoy and appreciate discussions about how to hold on to the human side of dentistry even as the business world embraces intuitive algorithms, artificial intelligence, and everything digital.
Developed as the most comprehensive and far-reaching business meeting ever presented by the Seattle Study Club, this event will give you a glimpse into the future, as exceptional speakers discuss the economics of dentistry in coming years. Whether you are planning to buy or sell a practice; whether you are employed by someone else in dentistry or you own your own practice, you will get so much out of four intensive days of business and life lessons at Symposium 2019.
There are those who will say that it all sounds good, but they are too busy, they don’t have the time, they would rather spend their money at a different vacation venue; or they put forth other not so good reasons to miss this opportunity. Some prefer to remain in their “silos.” The term refers to many dentists, each in their own practices, who are cut off from one another because they all own independent practices. The Seattle Study Club, the “university without walls,” is bringing the dental profession out of the silos and onto common ground. Information is shared; lives are enriched.
Symposium 2019 is a unique opportunity to learn from experts in many fields of business. Watch how they apply their knowledge to dental practices. Learn what dental practices have in common with other businesses. Take advantage of the laser focus of so many resources in one place that speak to you and your issues.
The real challenge is not just to attend Symposium 2019, but to take the next steps when you return home from Amelia Island. The Seattle Study Club is participatory. It’s not enough to sit in the stands; you have to take the field and help the team. When you return home, you have two responsibilities. The first is to sift and sort through the voluminous information you will have gathered and assign priorities. Decide what you will do first and get it done. Then, move on to the next item, and the next. There is much synergy in applying new knowledge to old problems. The other task is to be an ambassador. You need to carry messages from Symposium to others in your practice and your club. You are a student at Symposium and a teacher at home.
There have been many memorable Symposia. This one on business and finance comes as society and technology are challenging common assumptions. It will be talked about and referred to for many years. The time is right, the subject apt, the opportunity boundless. Everyone’s experience at the meeting will be enhanced because you, the dentist and CEO, will be there as we all learn about dentistry, business, and life.
